Lumintop ODF30

Lumintop ODF30 flashlight review:

Table of content

Introduction:

Lumintop likes to be on top of their game. The ODF30 is a single cell that powers a XHP70.2 LED reaching over 3000 lumens on Max output. The one reviewed here is the 1st version. The 2nd version has a spring in the tailcap.

Is it worth the money?

Let's check out the review below.

What you get:

Carton box

Orange Lanyard

2 spare o-rings

User Manual

Warranty Card

Holster

The packaging is rather standard for a flashlight. A simple brown cardboard box, but still better than the standard cardboard boxes you'll get with a budget flashlight. Including some o-rings a lanyard and a little pouch.

Handling of the light

The ODF30 is definitely extremely lightweight. Not sure if that was done on purpose. 26650 sytle flashlights have a very comfortable body diameter unlike 18650 lights or multi cell flashlights. It is almost a perfect size to keep it comfortably in your hands. The electronic switch is positioned well so the thumb rests on- or near the switch. Not comparable to the behomoth brother the Lumintop BLF GT, that I also reviewed.

The size is really small so it is easily pocketable. You just have to make sure you untwist the tailcap so it doesn't activate the light accidentally in your pocket.

Unfortunately there are no flat surfaces so the light will roll-around on anything flat. Attaching the lanyard will help out here.

Tailstanding?

no problem!

Build Quality and Anodizing

The anodizing on the ODF30 is matte, and flat black. The anodization is done well and helps a bit with the grip. Just a bit because the lack of knurling doesn't help very much with grip.

The build quality is nothing to complain but as I mentioned earlier, just a little on the light side.

Threads

The threads are square and lightly lubricated. Only the tailcap can be unscrewed! The body can't be unscrewed from the head so I assume there is no lubrication on those threads.

LED, Lens Bezel and Reflector

This Lumintop's LED is a high power XHP70.2 LED. And according to claims can put out a max of 3500 lumens of a single battery. We'll see how well it will do in the test. The BIN is unknown to me.

Reflector has a 36.5mm outside diameter and 32.4mm inside diamter, and has a 18mm depth.

The glass lens is quite interesting as it fits right into the O-ring. Unlike normal O-rings this one sits within the O-ring itself. I didnt want to mess it up, and decided to leave it alone.

The stainless steel bezel works great and should give some extra protection.

User Interface:

From OFF there is NO double Click feature. The flashlight will turn on, and that's it.

Lock out mode:
Lock out mode is probably not what you are used to. When in Lock out mode, you can use it as Momentary-On. Which means that when you press the switch the light will power on, but when you release the switch, the light will directly power off. So you can use Morse Coding etc. A normal lock-out mode would prevent the flashlight from any activation at all.

From ON:

Single click: cycle through Low Medium High

Double click: TURBO

Press+Hold 2 sec: light will switch off.

How to turn off the Lumintop ODF30?
By pressing and holding the electronic switch for 2 seconds.

Blinkies:

There is fortunately only 1 blinky mode, and that is STROBE.

From OFF: press+hold 2 sec. to enter Eco mode, and double click for STROBE. You can not reach Strobe from the main mode set.

Mode Memory:

Yes. So if you are in the OFF position and you do a single click, you will get back to the last used mode. (Excluding moon, Turbo or Strobe)

PWM:

I could only detect PWM in Strobe mode... lol

Performance:

Before we dive into the AMPS, let's talk a bit about using the light outdoors. I went outside to do some beamshots of several lights and the ODF30 is just an awesome little light! Don't let the Turbo (or lack thereof) withold you from getting a copy. You still get lots and lots of lumens from a pocketable flashlight. More than you probably need in most cases!

(Edit: the light will now stay in Turbo mode, read below)

For the following testing I used a Samsung INR18650 25R in a battery adapter to fit the tube of the Lumintop. I tried to use a protected Panasonic NCR18650B but it would not allow me to enter Turbo mode..LOL I could have guessed that beforehand.

The difference between High and Turbo is definitely noticeable, but the huge increase in Amps is not justifiable in my opinion. Take note that you need a High Amp lithium ION battery in order to get the max output.

I desoldered the positive wire to the XHP LED and measured the following at 6.73Volts with my Fluke 77III DMM.

Low: 0.16A

Medium: 0.55A

High: 1.89A

Turbo: 4.36A

Moon: 0.02A

Measurement at the tail cap:

Low: 0.30A

Medium: 0.91A

High: 3.6A

Turbo: 5+A (not easy to measure with my probes)

Moon: 0.07A

I've also measured lumen in my home built integrating sphere with my SkyTronic LX101 lux meter. I calculated the lumens using a flashlight from BLF member Djozz as a guide, which has a stable 137 lumens. So I had to calculate it time 0.02133956386 :--)

After I posted the video online, a helpful BLF member (JasonWW) pointed me out that the problem with my Turbo mode might be in the tailcap spring assembly! And he was correct!.

The first battery I used was a protected Panasonic NCR18650B battery. And that battery might have compressed the tailcap tab with spring too much so it wouldnt jump back to the original position. This resulted in the extremely short Turbo mode!

The newer version has the Tab removed and only uses a spring. This problem is therefore solved. If yours still has the metal tab, you can however redo the tailcap assembly or remove the tab to get Turbo mode to work for more than just a few seconds.

Picture 1: OFF, 2:Low, 3:Med, 4:Max, 5:Turbo, 6:Moon

Moon

Low

Med

High

Turbo

Runtime

Runtime graph seen below. This is done with a Samsung INR 25R I believe... I actually forgot what battery I used Lol..

Throw:

Measured at 5 meters (16.4ft), I measured 65lx (x10) , which equals to 16250 cd / 16kcdI tested it with a Samsung 25R flat top battery. My measurements always seem to be a little on the lower end compared to others.

The ODF is more of a flooder than a thrower. In the video you can see the ODF30 in Max mode mostly, not Turbo.. I would definitely recommend this light for close range, or even indoors.. Indoors it's just a fantastic light (output wise), and you don't need throw.

EDIT: after figuring out the tailcap problem, I can probably recommend it much more.. Turbo mode works now as expected! Just don't use protected and unprotected batteries.. the unprotected batteries will be too short to make contact after using protected batteries that compress the tailcap assembly too far.

Overall conclusion of the Lumintop ODF30

Pros:

Unique in a way to add a XHP70.2 LED to a single battery powered flashlight.

Stainless steel bezel

Momentary-on possible for morse coding etc... if you are into that.

Great body diameter (21650)

Hidden Strobe

Cons

Lack of knurling/grip

Premium price

Turbo mode is very short. EDIT: this is not the case anymore, read above.

Marco

Bad

If you are looking for an interesting 26650 flashlight with the ability to boost 3500lumens out of the front, this could be it. The reason why I gave it 4 stars is the drop in brightness too quickly. But that was all due to the tailcap spring problem. Now that is solved, I like to move the star rating towards 5 stars!

I lowered the rating to 2 stars.. After 2 months the side switch doesn't work very well anymore.. And the CS of Lumintop only offered a 40% discount on the next flashlight I buy, instead of replacing the bad flashlight...

The flashlight was provided by Lumintop for review. I have reviewed the flashlight as unbiased as possible and have not tried to keep anything behind.